My yard is in a neighborhood near woods. I had yard mice previous to any compost pile, and the addition of my compost pile certainly hasn't run them off. Since getting a compost pile I have noticed that the neighbor's cat(s) spend more time in my yard. I never see mice, but I'm sure they are there (years ago I set up my infrared camera overnight to record/verify their presence, they are there!). Also, yesterday I restacked a pile and during the process I saw many roaches. Not an infestation by any means, but maybe 7 or so during the two hour process. I think what you compost as well as how you do it makes a difference. I have gotten lazy and throw my kitchen scraps out onto the pile without covering them up. I used to keep leaves handy to cover up any new kitchen scraps(vegetable scrap and coffee grounds). A compost pile will create its own little food chain. From microbes to bugs to lizards to cats in my backyard. I think most compost pile owners will agree that any bugs present are nothing to worry about. If you want to compost to reduce what you send to a landfill, maybe you should consider a purchased compost tumbler. If it's compost for the garden you are after, stick to composting leaves and such and avoid the food scraps. An open pile with lots of food will have the most bugs I would think. Good luck.

I wonder if putting thick 'slabs' of newspaper sections over the top, would help to trap the smells until it composts further? Or...If your back won't permit, could you get another person to turn the material? That would allow you to reassemble the material, balancing C/N. My food waste goes to an in-ground worm pit, not in the compost pile. Hope this helps. It is a bummer when things you've done in the past, don't quite work. Your guess about orange rinds is probably right ... pretty unpleasant smell. Maybe bury those in separate pit, in the future? I cold-compost, too, but in a pile, not enclosed bin. I layer yard waste [twigs, smallish branches]with smaller stuff [leaves, grass, weeds, etc.] So plenty of air movement through the pile.

You are describing an entirely new harvesting method. All castings no compost. I had several sheets of thick cardboard that looked like giant versions of the wavy cardboard that is between the two flat outside layers of corrigated cardboard. Just the corrigated part, the up/downs, if you will, were maybe almost an inch high with no outside layers. 6" by 13". But thick like a bit over 1/8 inch. I put some at the bottom of buckets with other types of cardboard above it. The worms would eat above and I guess while crawling around just happen to deposit only castings in the ridges. No food or other bedding ever got there, just pure castings and mating worms. When tearing apart a bin, which is very fun, the worms would be thick in the ridges of both sides. And yes like you say they did appear to be making Whoopee. Just like in the inside of egg shells. Maybe a new topic? How to harvest 100% vermicastings. You are right, tubes standing up negatives: Easy access for fruit flys, I do wonder sometimes if that does happen. I try to have the tubes lower end inside the air pocket where maybe there are no flys and hope air goes in and out. I had a sheer curtain material over the bins at one point so that would tend to cover the top of the tubes. I do have material that sometimes misses the pail and goes into the tubes. I seems to not compact and block off the whole air pathway. "A main point of this discussion is that the worms need oxygen (and moisture)." I so agree. I think the focus is and has been on moisture with hardley a mention of oxygen other than avoiding nonarerobic conditions by too much nitrogen. We have read instructions to always control this wetness. Maybe you will agree that moisture can be 100% as long as oxygen is available. Maybe instead of measuring ph and wetness we, vermicomposters, should be talking and measuring oxygen? Either in the bottom of the bin or disolved in the wetness of the bin. Or maybe not a high level of carbon dioxide would indicate high oxygen. When worms are found in drainage trays dead I think that is not too much water but not enough oxygen, or too much carbon dioxide.

BIN and Kilz are tinted white, you probably want to try clear shellac. You can buy it in a spray can or put it on with a brush and it won’t affect the color of your wood furniture. You might try getting some acrylic craft paints to touch up the dark spots to match the original color. Hope this helps.